Here is an overview of our Memorial Weekend. Friday Phillip, Naomi & I excitedly loaded up the car and we began the 4 hour trip to my Mother's home in Ohio. We were an hour away and the car suddenly lost power. We quickly got off the expressway and called my brother, Tony. He called a tow truck and came to pick us up. We were so thankful that his insurance paid the towing bill. Saturday Phillip began the process of nailing down the source of the problem with the car. He soon determined the fuel pump and filter needed replaced. My brother who works in mechanics was able to get the parts we needed through his company and we paid less than half price for them. While Phillip was busy with this I helped Mom and my sister-in-law, Lisa make homemade strawberry jam from berries that had been picked prior to our coming. Later in the afternoon we went to the garden and sure enough the berries were ready to be picked again, which we did. I fed the sheep, chickens, and dogs. I helped Mom plant some flowers.

Friday night I had been awakened after only 2 hours of sleep thinking I heard Naomi awake but when I investigated I realized the source of the noise that had awakened me was one of Mother's three roosters. From 2 until 5 a.m. I was very wide awake and the rooster continued to crow. So as evening was drawing near on Saturday the rooster once again began to head for the bush near our bedroom window. Mom admitted that Mr Cock-a-doodle-do was annoyingly loud and she wouldn't mind having him in a pan with dumplings. So I convinced my husband to shoot him with the BB gun. This didn't work so I got a rake and chased him around the yard and down into the pasture, refusing to let him come to roost in the bushes in the yard. What a laughable sight this was! I was secretly hoping a sly old fox would find him. It didn't happen. Sunday morning he was back in the yard and was granted a reprieve one more day. Sunday we worshipped the Lord with our family and honored the Lord's Day.

After breakfast on Monday my nephew offered to assist in ending the roosters life. So as the pioneer ladies of old Mom and I plucked the feathers from the rooster and he found his way into the cooking pot for dumplings at dinner time. Then my sister, Victoria and I put up new curtains on Mom's large, glassed sun porch. The windows were so large we had to make extensions for the curtain rods and find enough hooks to hang the rods . During this time Phillip was trying to put a new door on the sun porch. We kept interrupting him to ask his assistance with our "project." He gallantly obliged us. After both our jobs were finished we grilled-out and feasted with the family. Now it was time to make more jam with the last batch of strawberries from Mom's garden before they went to waste. Everybody pitched in and Mom reminded us that "many hands make light work" which it did. My brother, Tony once again went to the berry patch and picked more berries. Since the Lord had sent a much needed rain on Sunday they were ready to pick AGAIN. By this time it was late in the day and we still had 4 hours to travel back home. We made a trip to the cemetery to pay our respects to my father and brother who were both veterans and returned home about 10:00 p.m.

What a blessing it was to be with our family and be able to share their load! We joyfully counted about 80 containers of strawberry jam which we anxiously look forward to spreading on Mom's homemade bread. (with more berries ready to be preserved) Some of those cups of jam made their way to Michigan with us and are in our freezer. We thank the Lord for traveling mercy and that our car is working well once again. We returned home tired but joyful. God is SO good! Now we are gearing up to entertain and enjoy our 5 grandsons and their parents who are coming in from Kansas for our family reunion in June. What anticipation!! We'll be sharing with you again soon.